HOWARD MARKEL, M.D., Ph.D., is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. His books include Quarantine!, When Germs Travel, An Anatomy of Addiction, and The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and The New England Journal of Medicine. Markel is a Guggenheim fellow and member of the National Academy of Medicine. A regular contributor to PBS NewsHour.com, he lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I have been a fan of Howard Markel's essays, reading them eagerly when they appeared in the most prestigious medical journals. What a treat to have them under one cover. From Dostoevsky to Marilyn Monroe, these pieces wed medicine and fascinating pearls of history, echoing Markel's professional training in both disciplines. But the writing style is uniquely Markel, combining impish curiosity, incisive observation, a psychoanalyst's insight, and humor. It is a collection to treasure.

• Part I: Medical Literature 1."I swear by Apollo" - the Hippocratic Oath 2. The death of Samuel Johnson: A clinicopathologic conference 3. Charles Dickens' work to help establish the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London 4. The medical detectives: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Case of Robert Koch's lymph 5. The last alcoholic days of F. Scott Fitzgerald 6. Blowing the Whistle: The internship of William Carlos Williams, MD, and his abrupt resignation from the New York Nursery and Child's Hospital 7. Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith: The great American medical novel 8. Living (and practicing) in the shadow of the house of God Part II: Medical Texts 9. The stethoscope and the art of listening 10. "Experiments and observations:" How William Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin Seized the Moment of Scientific Progress 11. On John Snow 12. Dr. Osler's relapsing fever 13. The extraordinary Dr. Biggs 14. Sigmund Freud's long line of cocaine. Part I: Carl Koller 15. Sigmund Freud's long line of cocaine. Part II: the Accidental Addict 16. Exploring the dangerous trades With Dr. Alice Hamilton 17. The Principles and Practice of Medicine: How a textbook, a former Baptist minister, and an oil tycoon shaped the modern American medical and public health industrial-research complex 18. Onward Howard Kelly, marching as to war 19. April 12, 1955 - Tommy Francis and the Salk Vaccine 20. John Harvey Kellogg and the pursuit of wellness Part III: Medical Performances 21. Grasping at straws: Eugene O'Neill, tuberculosis, and transformation 22. Men in White: the operating room's debut Into popular American culture 23. Not so great moments: The "discovery" of ether anesthesia and Its "re-discovery" by Hollywood 24. "Calling Dr. Kildare:" The literary lives of Frederick Schiller Faust, a.k.a. Max Brand 25."Gotta' sing! Gotta' diagnose!" A postmortem examination of Rodgers and Hammerstein's medical musical Allegro 26. Cole Porter's eventful nights and days 27. Physician, heal thyself: Arthur Miller, Henrik Ibsen, and the enemies of the people Part IV: A Certain PBS-ness of the Soul 28. George Gershwin's too-short life ended on a blue note 29. Elvis' addiction was the perfect prescription for an early death 30. How a strange rumor of Walt Disney's death became legend 31. A symphony of second opinions on Mozart's final illness 32. Marilyn Monroe and the prescription drugs that killed her 33. Did Lou Gehrig actually die of 'Lou Gehrig's disease? 34. The "Home Run King" Babe Ruth helped pioneer modern cancer treatment 35. Remembering Ryan White, the teen who fought against the stigma of AIDS 36. June 22, 1969: The day Judy Garland's star burned out 37. How 'Raisin in the Sun' author Lorraine Hansberry defined what it meant to be 'young, gifted and black' 38. Edgar Allan Poe's greatest mystery was his death 39. The medical mystery that helped make Thomas Edison an inventor 40. How a hotel convention became ground zero for this deadly bacteria 41. The brilliant brothers behind the Mayo Clinic 42. How Walter Reed earned his status as a legend and hospital namesake 43. Dr. Alzheimer and the patient who helped reveal a devastating disease 44. Diagnosing Vincent Van Gogh 45. How poet John Keats met his early end 46. The infectious disease that sprung Al Capone from Alcatraz 47. Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a renowned medical missionary with a complicated history 48. How playing with dangerous x-rays led to the discovery of radiation treatment for cancer 49. How Medicare came to be, thanks to Harry S. Truman 50. How to save a dying heart 51. C. Everett Koop's rise from 'Dr. Unqualified' to surgeon-in-chief 52. A hormonal happy birthday 53. For Dostoevsky, epilepsy was a matter of both life and literature 54. The death of Oscar Wilde: the wittiest man who ever lived 55. April 23, 1616: the day William Shakespeare died 56. But what caused Houdini's mysterious death? 57. September 29: The Tylenol Murders of 1982 58. The day doctors began to conquer smallpox 59. In 1850, Ignaz Semmelweis saved lives with three words: wash your hands 60. "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen": the final episode of M*A*S*H, February 28, 1893 61. Louis Pasteur's risky move to save a boy from almost certain death 62. 'I Have Seen My Death': how the world discovered the X-Ray 63. How a boy became the first to beat back diabetes 64. Alfred Nobel's spirit of discovery 65. The real story behind penicillin 66. The day scientists discovered the 'secret of life' 67. The Surgeon General's famous report that alerted Americans to the deadly dangers of cigarettes 68. The publication of Alcoholics Anonymous: One of the most Influential books in the history of medicine and public health 69. Presidents get sick and die. What happens next hasn't always been clear 70. Dec. 14, 1799: The excruciating final hours of President George Washington 71. The dirty, painful death of President James A. Garfield 72. When a "secret president" ran the country 73. The 'strange' death of Warren G. Harding 74. Franklin D. Roosevelt's painfully eloquent final words 75. How Florence Nightingale cleaned up 'hell on earth' hospitals and became an international hero 76. Celebrating Rebecca Lee Crumpler, first African-American woman physician 77. How Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female doctor in the U.S. 78. Clara Barton's crusade to bring the Red Cross to America 79. Happy birthday to the woman who revolutionized endocrinology 80. The quarantine of "Typhoid Mary" Malone 81. How Nellie Bly went undercover to expose abuse of the mentally ill Acknowledgments Index